Communication devices, such as pagers, cellular telephones and the like, commonly receive not only voice messages via, for example, a voice mail system, but also textual messages. Recent advances in the display technologies have provided the capability to receive and display larger amounts of textual data. For example, cellular telephones now typically include a database for storing address book entries that may be accessed and displayed by the user. Despite the increasing reliance on such displays, the desire to provide an easily portable communication device has typically limited the size of the display to rather small dimensions.
Depending on the communication device, the user may be notified of receipt of a message via an audible, tactile, or visual alert. Visual alerts have typically included the generation of an icon on the display, the icon being indicative of a received message. To access the message, a user must usually then access a main menu providing a series of options, one of which will eventually lead to the message. As the number of features provided by the communication device grows, the user may often have to navigate through several decision screens before finally reaching a detailed description of the message.
Thus, there remains a need for a message alert system and a method of notifying a user of messages which simplifies the procedure for a user to access messages.